Jane Austen

»Bredvid Jane Austen är James Joyce oskuldsfull som gräs.« W. H. AUDEN»Jane Austens romaner har den permanenta kvaliteten hos riktig litteratur.« VIRGINIA WOOLFAnne Elliot övertalades en gång att bryta sin förlovning med Frederick Wentworth, en sjökapten utan vare sig förmögenhet eller status. Nu möts de igen, åtta år senare. Jane Austens sista roman hör till de absoluta klassikerna i engelsk­språkig litteratur. Övertalning är briljant satir om fåfänga och högmod, men också en gripande berättelse om kärlek och missade möjligheter. JANE AUSTEN [1775- 1817] var en engelsk författare, vars kärleksromaner hör till de största klassikerna i den engelskspråkiga litte­ra­­­turen. Romanerna utspelar sig inom en engelsk aristokrati, ofta skildrad med skarp ironi. Konventioner och koder utgör hinder för att finna lycka, inte minst för kvinnor. Övertalning [Persuasion, 1818], som gavs ut postumt, räknas till Jane Austens viktigaste verk. I översättning av Jane Lundblad.» Övertalning skär rakt in i vår instagrammande samtid.« | ELSA WESTERSAD, KULTURNYTT, SVERIGES RADIO, P4

»Bredvid Jane Austen är James Joyce oskuldsfull som gräs.« | W. H. AUDEN»Jane Austens romaner har den permanenta kvaliteten hos riktig litteratur.« | VIRGINIA WOOLF»Jane Austens blick för sin egen samtids ­spelregler får oss att se våra.« | JESPER HÖGSTRÖM, EXPRESSEN Kärleken mellan dem är en kamp. Fitzwilliam Darcy har sin stolthet, Elizabeth Bennet sin krassa blick på världen. Lika tydlig som Jane Austens viktorianska roman är i skildringen av kärleksrelationer som maktmedel, lika mångbottnade och föränderliga är hennes karaktärer; lika levande miljöerna och landskapet. Inte för intet är Stolthet och fördom en av historiens mest lästa och omtalade romaner. I översättning av Gösta Olzon. JANE AUSTEN [1775 1817] var en engelsk författare, vars kärleksromaner hör till de största klassikerna i den engelskspråkiga litte­ra­­­turen. Romanerna utspelar sig inom en engelsk aristokrati, ofta skildrad med skarp ironi. Konventioner och koder utgör hinder för att finna lycka, inte minst för kvinnor.

Emma Woodhouse er både smuk, intelligent og rig. Efter sin mors død har hun indtaget rollen som førstedame på Hartfield, hvor hun bor sammen med sin omsorgsfulde, men noget hypokondriske far. Woodhouse-familien er en af de fornemmeste på egnen, og Emma er meget bevidst om sin overlegne position såvel som sine øvrige fortrin. Da hun påtager sig rollen som Kirsten Giftekniv over for sin veninde Harriet, løber hendes livlige fantasi flere gange af med hende, og hendes tendens til at nære lidt for høje tanker om sig selv og sin egen dømmekraft medfører utallige forviklinger og får helt uforudsete konsekvenser. Emma, som også er meget kærlig og charmerende, har mange venner, der tilsyneladende alle er blinde over for hendes fejl. Bortset fra Mr. Knightley. Han forsøger utrætteligt at få den stædige Emma til at indse sin egen indbildskhed, men da hun endelig begynder at indrømme sandheden over for sig selv, er det lige ved at være for sent. "Bogen er som en brusende kvadrille med partnerskifte, til alle efter megen uvished finder den rette … totalbilledets elskværdighed er uimodståelig." - Jacob Paludan, Politiken "Rene mesterstykker er portrætterne af den snakkesyge Miss Bates og Emmas far, den gamle forpylrede Mr. Woodhouse. De er bundkomiske, men meget menneskelige og meget elskelige. Alle hendes figurer træder os lyslevende i møde tværs gennem deres historiske mundering. Giv dem andre hatte, bukser eller kjoler på, og vi har dem spadserende rundt imellem os i dag." - Mogens Knudsen, Information

The pride of high-ranking Mr Darcy and the prejudice of middle-class Elizabeth Bennet conduct an absorbing dance through the rigid social hierarchies of early-nineteenth-century England, with the passion of the two unlikely lovers growing as their union seems ever more improbable. One of the most cherished love stories in English literature, Jane Austen’s 1813 masterpiece has a lasting effect on everyone who reads it.

le premier de ses grands romans, crit en 1803 mais rest non publi jusque l . D'un ton plus grave que les oeuvres pr c dentes de la romanci re, il raconte les retrouvailles d'Anne Elliot avec Frederick Wentworth, dont elle a repouss la demande en mariage huit ans auparavant, persuad e par son amie Lady Russell des risques de cette union avec un jeune officier de marine en d but de carri re, pauvre et l'avenir incertain. Mais alors que la guerre avec la France s'ach ve, le capitaine Wentworth revient, fortune faite, avec le d sir de se marier pour fonder un foyer. Il a conserv du refus d'Anne Elliot la conviction que la jeune fille manquait de caract re et se laissait trop ais ment persuader.

"Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings." --- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park Mansfield Park is a novel by Jane Austen, written at Chawton Cottage between February 1811 and 1813. It was published in May 1814 by Thomas Egerton, who published Jane Austen's two earlier novels, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. When the novel reached a second edition in 1816, its publication was taken over by John Murray, who also published its successor, Emma. Literary significance and criticism Mansfield Park is the most controversial of Austen's major novels. Regency critics praised the novel's wholesome morality, but many modern readers find Fanny's timidity and disapproval of the theatricals difficult to sympathise with and reject the idea (made explicit in the final chapter) that she is a better person for the relative privations of her childhood. Jane Austen's own mother thought Fanny "insipid", and many other readers have found her priggish and unlikeable. Other critics point out that she is a complex personality, perceptive yet given to wishful thinking, and that she shows courage and grows in self-esteem during the latter part of the story. Austen biographer Claire Tomalin, who is generally rather critical of Fanny, argues that "it is in rejecting obedience in favour of the higher dictate of remaining true to her own conscience that Fanny rises to her moment of heroism." But Tomalin reflects the ambivalence that many readers feel towards Fanny when she also writes: "More is made of Fanny Price's faith, which gives her the courage to resist what she thinks is wrong; it also makes her intolerant of sinners, whom she is ready to cast aside." The story contains much social satire, targeted particularly at the two aunts.

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature." --- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan (as it was first called) was written circa 1798-99. It was revised by Austen for the press in 1803, and sold in the same year for 10 to a London bookseller, Crosby & Co., who decided against publishing. In the spring of 1816, the bookseller was content to sell it back to the novelist's brother, Henry Austen, for the exact sum- 10-that he had paid for it at the beginning, not knowing that the writer was by then the author of four popular novels. (Jane Austen had no public reputation as a writer during her lifetime, as all her novels were published anonymously.) The novel was further revised by Austen in 1817/18, with the intention of having it published. Amongst other changes, the lead character's name was changed from Susan to Catherine, and Austen retitled the book Catherine as a result. Austen died in July 1817. Northanger Abbey (as the novel was now called) was brought out posthumously in late December 1817 (1818 given on the title page), as the first two volumes of a four-volume set that also featured another previously unpublished Austen novel, Persuasion. Neither novel was published under the title Jane Austen had given it; the title Northanger Abbey is presumed to have been the invention of Henry Austen, who had arranged for the book's publication.

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope... I have loved none but you. " ---Jane Austen, Persuasion Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma and completed it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December of that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen's brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath-well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there-is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects, Persuasion marks a break with Austen's previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel's characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Against this is set the energy and appeal of the Royal Navy, which symbolises for Anne and the reader the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, and it is this worldview which triumphs for the most part at the end of the novel.

"I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control. " --- Jane Austen, Emma Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." In the very first sentence she introduces the title character as "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters."

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment." -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London. Though the story is set at the turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of "most loved books" such as The Big Read. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature and receives considerable attention from literary scholars. Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes. To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide. As Anna Quindlen wrote, Pride and Prejudice is also about that thing that all great novels consider, the search for self. And it is the first great novel that teaches us this search is as surely undertaken in the drawing room making small talk as in the pursuit of a great white whale or the public punishment of adultery.

Apr s une enfance o elle appara t comme une sorte de gar on manqu un peu gauche - comportement bien excusable au demeurant, vu le nombre consid rable de ses fr res - Catherine Morland, est devenue, entre 15 et 17 ans, presque jolie, et son amour de la boue a fait place une inclination pour les beaux atours. Elle est d sormais pr te devenir l'h ro ne du roman, ayant nourri son esprit de toutes les lectures propres la pr parer cette haute destin e. Derri re la jeune fille na ve, ignorante du monde, mais l'imagination d bordante, Catherine Morland cache en effet une me sinc re et sans arri re-pens e, qui la guidera travers les emb ches du monde ext rieur qu'elle va devoir affronter.

Orpheline de m re. seule aupr s d'un p re en mauvaise sant , Emma Woodhouse s'est mis en t te de marier Harriet Smith, une jeune fille qu'elle a prise sous sa protection. Son inexp rience des coeurs et des tres, ses propres motions amoureuses, qu'elle ne sait gu re interpr ter ou traduire, lui vaudront bien des d convenues et des d couvertes. Autour d'Emma, Jane Austen d peint avec sobri t et humour, et aussi une grande v racit psychologique, le petit monde provincial dans lequel elle a elle-m me pass toute sa vie. Emma est l'oeuvre la plus aboutie de Jane Austen et l'un des classiques du roman anglais.

'Beautifully designed... Perfect collectable gift for Austen fans and design devotees' So Darling Elinor is as prudent as her sister Marianne is impetuous. Each must learn from the other after they are they are forced by their father's death to leave their home and enter into the contests of polite society. The charms of unsuitable men and the schemes of rival ladies mean that their paths to success are thwart with disappointment but together they attempt to find a way to happiness. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY FRANCESCA SEGAL VINTAGE CLASSICS AUSTEN SERIES - all six of Jane Austen's major novels, beautifully designed and introduced by our finest contemporary writers.